De-Loused in the Comatorium is the debut studio album of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, released on June 24, 2003 on Gold Standard Laboratories and Universal Records. Based on a short story written by lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and sound manipulation artist Jeremy Michael Ward, the album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on a mixture of morphine and rat poison. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death. The story of Cerpin Taxt is based on the death of El Paso, Texas artist - and Bixler-Zavala's friend - Julio Venegas. (Ominously enough, founding member Jeremy Michael Ward was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose one month before the album was released.)
De-Loused became, both critically and commercially, the band's biggest hit, eventually selling in excess of 500,000 copies despite limited promotion, and was featured on several critics' Best of the Year lists.[1] The album was ranked number 55 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time.[2] Drunkship of Lanterns was named the 91st best guitar song of all-time by Rolling Stone.[3]
The music contained in De-Loused is distinguished by its enigmatic lyrics, latin and jazz rhythms, and Omar Rodríguez-López's frenetic guitar riffs, which are often harshly dissonant. The title of this album is taken from the lyrics of the song Eunuch Provocateur on the band's previous release, Tremulant. The cover artwork is by Storm Thorgerson.
Stop, look, and listen!!I've seen the future, and it's THE MARS VOLTA with their new CD release De-Loused In The Comatorium. This band has just served notice on all the rap-rock (Limp Bizkit+Korn) and pop punk poser (Good Charlotte, Blink 182+all the other Atticus label soundalikes!) crap that has been passed off as alternative music for the last few years. THE MARS VOLTA is for real, bringing elements of the past (prog rock+concept albums), with ideas from the future (experimental+punk). Seeing them live will be the only way to truly understand their message of pure musical genius, since my words are only bits of text. Buy the CD, but for God's sake, see them live and soon, especially before they are headlining a major stadium in your neighborhood. THE MARS VOLTA will be the next big thing. No kidding.Submitted by a reviewer (Redondo Beach, CA 90277) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
